Freedom to Learn

The roles of play and curiosity as foundations for learning

Peter Gray, a research professor of psychology at Boston College, is a specialist in developmental and evolutionary psychology and author of an introductory textbook, Psychology. See full bio

September 9, 2008, Child Development

Comments on "Why We Should Stop Segregating Children by Age: Part I--The Value of Play in the Zone of Proximal Development"

Why We Should Stop Segregating Children by Age: Part I--The Value of Play in the Zone of Proximal Development

By Peter Gray on September 9, 2008 in Freedom to Learn

One of the oddest, and in my view most harmful, aspects our treatment of children today is our penchant for segregating them into separate groups by age. We do that not only in schools, but increasingly in out-of-school settings as well. In doing so, we deprive children of a valuable component of their natural means of self-education--the opportunity to play with and learn from those who are considerably older or younger than themselves. Read More

Not to mention how

Submitted by dyhppy on September 9, 2008 - 3:36pm.

Not to mention how segregating students makes draws repulsive lines that wouldn't normally be there: ie: you can hang with us cuz you're an underclassman!